Amber/Borderline
A lot happens in Borderline. Most of the main plot resolves around Teen Games, ''Blue Upway'' in particular. Gold Commander Melisande assigns shutting down "Blue Upway" as a priority to Amber's unit. Then there is the problem of Tobias, one of the Alpha strike team members who has a really hard time accepting his lottery assignment. (See Tobias for more details.) After their first run of the book, Lucas calls for an emergency team leader meeting and informs everyone that immediately after New Year, Morton's unit will be shutting down for several months for his life saving surgery and (hopefully) recovery. This causes a lot of discussion about preparing the unit for the extra burden. They need to recruit additional staff, including more strike team members. They also discuss a way for Amber to better relax in between runs without leaving the hive, particularly as it is winter outside. Buzz has noted that she finds the park and the animals there helpful when she is under stress. Megan suggests converting the Expansion area to a special private park and animal area. There will be a connecting door between the new park and Amber's apartment. Amber is surprised to discover this large empty area so close by, and learns it was used for theatrical performances in Claire's time. Amber meets Mira, via their secret communications methods, after Mira's unit arrests Gregas and his friend Wesley. They had been trespassing in a maintenance area while playing Blue Upway. Gregas had given a false name, which resulted in Mira reading his mind. As soon as she discovered that Gregas is Amber's brother, Mira withdrew, then she called Amber to apologize and explain what happened. Everyone is very relieved when Amber does not start a conflict with Mira over this. Just before leaving for the long awaited shopping trip with Amber's mother, there is a confrontation and Tobias hits Amber, though he was actually trying to hit Lucas. This incident causes a lot of panic in case Amber suffers head trauma. Megan goes along on the shopping trip - as well as five bodyguards including Forge, Buzz as fashion adviser, Lucas to get a matching outfit, Eli to distract Amber's mother, and Adika as well. Before their shopping can get properly underway, Amber's mother receives a call about Gregas being missing. Amber and Lucas are already aware of this, because Gregas and Wesley are awaiting Amber's attention in her unit's holding cells. Her mother is in a panic and demands Amber's unit's help and decides that she must go with them so that she too can help, then Wesley's parents and Amber's father also decide to go to Amber's Unit and help with the search. Amber and Lucas go to check on the boys and discover what happened when they ran into a wild bee before they were arrested by Mira's strike team. They discuss how to placate the frantic parents. It takes all of Nicole's ingenuity to come up with a satisfactory cover story to satisfy both sets of parents. Blue Upway The entire book has many threads that all lead to and through Blue Upway. Their first run concerns the capture of a wild bee who injures and chases three teenagers who were playing Blue Upway on Level 0. Gregas is arrested while he and Wesley were playing Blue Upway ''in a maintenance area. During their efforts to shut down ''Blue Upway, Lucas and Amber call Hive Politics and eventually learn the full story of who the previous Game Commander was, and how the current Game Commander took over by stealing the "game stack", a number of communication devices. They also learn other important secrets, that must be kept from Keith at all cost so that he doesn't cause great potential damage to the Hive. Amber also learns more about the way the Hive works and some details about the greater world beyond the Hive. Halloween (the game) To lure risk-loving teens away from Blue Upway, Lucas invents a more attractive game called Halloween, named after the ominous Festival of Darkness and Death. Gregas Once Gregas and Wesley arrive at Amber's unit, they are put to sleep with hypnosis and left that way until Amber can read their minds. Amber first tries to find out what happened by reading only Wesley's mind, but all she finds out besides Wesley living in a fantasy world, is that he and Gregas had been separated at the crucial time. It deeply distresses Amber to have to read her brother's mind, but it would disturb her even more to not know what happened to him. When she reads his mind she discovers that he had an *insight* about the Wild Bee and then successfully got away from him. Since he is clearly a valuable borderline telepath like Buzz, Gregas's memory can't be reset to a time prior to meeting the wild bee. The boys return to teen level, but Gregas continues to have insights that greatly worry him. Later in the book when Amber has her parents and Gregas brought to her unit to protect them from Keith, Gregas begs her to help him and is finally told the truth about his talent. Beckett Gaius, Keith's Tactical Commander, calls Lucas and warns him that Keith has just fired Beckett. It pains Lucas that Keith is punishing his friend Beckett, presumably for Lucas's refusal to let Buzz go to Keith's unit. Beckett is likely in distress on Teen Level since he does not have his special noise and light reducing equipent with him. Amber reads Lucas's distress and they instantly cooperate to organize a rescue mission. When Keith later claims that Amber kidnapped Beckett and demands his return, Amber is very firm with Gold Commander Melisande, telling her that since he had fired Beckett, Keith lost any claim him. She even threatens to stop her vital work if the Gold Commander takes Beckett away from her unit. Amber understands the issue is not just Beckett, but Lucas, Buzz and anyone else in her unit that Keith might try and use to hurt her. New Year The New Year's holiday is celebrated at the end of the book. Lucas has terrible memories of that festival, but finally gets beyond his fear of Amber leaving him. Buzz decides to celebrate the New Year with Amber and to dump her parents to remove herself from their negative influence. Gregas decides to move to one of the corridors where the teens from level 20 are assigned, who come from a Law Enforcement background and know all about telepathy. There he won't have to keep so many secrets from his friends. Duty Children One of the themes in Borderline is the issue of having children, how the Hive motivates its population to reproduce, and how some especially gifted individuals are invited to have additional "Duty Children". Lucas was such a duty child and essentially unwanted by his parents. Amber discovers that one of her own family also was a duty child, and that the telepath Claire, who lived in her unit before her, had twenty-five duty children. References Category:Hive Mind Series Characters